The Final Parting
by NotFlyingWithOtters
Summary: He Loved Her. But He Would Sacrifice His Limited Time With Her, So That She Could Share A Lifetime With Him...
1. Chapter 1

**First Doctor Who Fic. Set at the end of the final season with Rose in it. Please enjoy**

My eyes were misted up with tears as I raised my head to look over the TARDIS controls for the final time at the young blonde girl sat opposite me on the worn leather chairs that I had taken (without permission) from a car that one of my former affiliates used to drive. Her face was pale, only a slight flush in her cheeks as she looked over to me, as if checking I was still there in the same room as her. On my left, my clone, my twin, my doppelganger, whatever you wanted to call him; was standing beside me, his hands, identical to mine, running over the flux space monitor as I watched the dial for years click slowly down to where we wanted to be.

I turned my face away from Rose's burning eyes and looked back down at the blinking lights on the console that were merging together to form one burning sun of light. The gentle whirring and clicking brought me back into the present, well, my present and my clone's hands on mine as they removed them from the console and pressed the button that caused us to rematerialise. The whirring sound that announced our rematerialisation snapped me back to my thoughts, the slight juddering as we touched down on the sandy expanse of Dalig Ulv Stranden making all of us stumble slightly. Rose looked up at me with her wide brown eyes and I felt the same sense of loss that was clearly written in the lines of her face.

In my mind I was running through all the moments we had shared together since I had met her. The feelings about her had started just after I changed bodies, after her mother and her saved me when I had regenerated. I felt tears prick again at my eyes and turned briskly away, running a hand through my hair, desperately trying to seek solace with myself that it was the best thing to do. My clone stood beside me, he seemed unsure of what to do with his hands and kept moving them from his pockets to folded across his chest. In that moment I hated him. All of him. Every single fibre of his being, identical to mine in every way, was repulsive to me. He could have Rose and I couldn't. He could spend every day with her whilst I could spend no time with her ever again, I could never see her again after these precious moments. I wanted her. But she could no more leave her family for me, grow old whilst I stayed the same, and give up her life for the lonely traveller I am than I could stop saving the world and settle down with her here.

I opened the TARDIS door and waited for him and Rose to walk past me, her hand brushing mine as tears rose unbidden in me eyes. I stepped onto the muddy sand rippled with salty water from the growling sea in front of us. Jackie and Donna filed out sombrely behind us and I felt part of my hearts breaking, I could live with one, and Rose could take the other. She was already a part of me. She fitted in so well with me and my life that I couldn't imagine a time without her. I would miss her; forever a part of me would mourn, until I forgot. I don't want to forget her, I never do, but I know that in my mind, in my time walking among the galaxies alone, things will slip and vanish. But I do not want to forget the woman I love, I never want to forget my one and only love throughout the galaxy. I slammed the door of the TARDIS and dragged my feet towards the small huddle of people on the desolate landscape, desperately wanting nothing more than to grab Rose and jump into the space-time continuum.

A chill wind blew over the beach and ruffled Rose's hair as she stood apart from the others, staring over at me where I stood, a little over ten feet away. Our eyes met in the briefest of seconds and I had to tear my gaze away from hers or my self-control would have absconded and I would have run to her, begging her to come with me. The sad part is that I know she would have said yes within moments, in a heartbeat she would have jumped into my arms and said yes. I walked up to her and the group, my eyes desperately seeking out hers and my hand straying of its own accord to try to take hers. I snapped back into focus and moved my roving eyes back on track, moving over Jackie's white face and then onto Donna's fiery red hair. I felt myself glaring over at my clone, his dark eyes the same as mine flicking over my face and we both shared a connection. I felt his searing gaze penetrate mine and realized that I wasn't the only victim; he was suffering from the remorse of genocide. And I was losing the woman I loved forever.

The pain is incomparable when you have two hearts to break, and the period of getting over twice as hard. Two hearts to mend. I looked from Rose to him, from Rose to me. Only he wasn't me. I was me. And he… he was someone else that was identical to me; but not me. He did not have the feelings I did, nor did he have the resolute tugging of Rose on my hearts. His fingers were twined together in front of him and I stared at them. It was something I would do, so resolutely me in all my actions but at the same time, not me. My heartbeat thudded in my ears and I stared at him, stared at me. I felt my hearts skipping beats over and over as Rose's eyes followed my every movement from the slight intake of breath to shifting my weight from foot to foot as I waited for the silence to end.

Here I was. Standing on a deserted beach in Norway with my children of time. And The Doctor, the man with the answers, had run out of answers.

**Co-written by Becky and Me. Please review if you got this far ^^**

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

**Next chapter 8D The next one WILL be by Becky ^^; Hope you enjoy my chapter and I know it kinda switches tenses but it works... I think... Thanks to our reviewers, it is MUCH appreciated and your support is welcome (:**

I'm sat there, in those leather chairs I know so well, tugging my jacket tight around my cold shoulders and staring up at The Doctor. _My _Doctor. His clone stood beside him and Donna was behind me. We both stared at him. We both wanted answers. I wanted to know what was going to happen to us, I wanted to know if he would stay with me. But I already knew that answer. He wouldn't stay. He would carry on saving the universe, travelling the lonely galaxies and vast expanses of space without me. I loved him like I had never loved Mickey, like I had never loved anyone. There was a painful wrenching in my heart as I realized just how much I would miss him when he was gone. My mum is behind me, her hand resting loosely on the TARDIS console, not touching any of the buttons or dials, just gently running her fingers over and over the blinking lights.

I barely feel the jolt as we land or hear Donna's voice as The Doctor, as _my _Doctor opens the door and lets in the cool Norwegian air. I can feel my body shaking as I step past him, my fingers brushing his hand in a reflex action that makes me want to hold his skinny hands in mine forever. And then I'm past him, the icy Norwegian wind cutting through the thin clothes I was wearing like small daggers. He stares after me and I can feel his burning gaze on the back of my neck but then I walk away, standing on the muddy salt and letting the wind whip my hair over my face, blowing the tears off my skin and into the air.

Pain cut through my heart and I stifled the sobs that were threatening to burst over from my tired lungs. I try to raise my hand to wipe the tears away; the wind is cooling them on my fevered skin. I already miss him though he is less than a hundred meters away from me. I know he won't stay, but in my mind I keep trying to convince myself that he will leave everything, let the universe fall into rack and ruin, for me. It won't happen, and I won't leave here for him. As much as I would love to go, to leave this behind, I can't. If I leave I will have no way of getting in touch with my mum, with Mickey, with my dad. I will be alone with a man that will never grow old but will have to watch me wither and die while he can do nothing to stop the march of time.

This universe is collapsing around us and I want nothing more than to beg him to stay, throw myself into his arms and beg him. But I can see in his eyes that he wants me to stay with him, he is thinking about asking me to stay. A slight mist is running over the rolling waves, sending slight plumes of spray inland and over me, the salty droplets landing on my face hide the tears that are threatening to spill over down my cheeks and onto the damp sand. The sun was a slight misted over orb that gave out less light than the bars falling out from the TARDIS windows on the flat landscape. The Doctor and his clone, identical to him in every way, stood together on the flat surface. I marvelled at his ability to keep strong when the world was falling down around his shoulder, for me the whole landscape was bucking and twisting beneath my feet. I could feel myself trembling and I turn away from them all before it becomes obvious, before my knees give out from the stress of having to stay upright and strong.

I will fight to stay with my Doctor, I will fight to keep him with me but I know in my heart that it will not happen because he has to go, he has to save the universe and I have to stay. I have to stay here and defend this world, a world without a Doctor, and a world in need of healing. I can fix his clone, I can make him better after his act of genocide, but it won't be the same, it never will be. I can't have him and he can't have me. But my heart feels wrenched in two because I can have someone exactly like him, identical in every way, and he has to go alone. Without me. In essence we are both alone, sentient beings forever alone as we walk the path of time, the paths diverging away from each other as time carries on.

In my mind I see his face in the point where we thought it was goodbye last time, how tears streamed down our faces in our parting moments. I knew what he was going to say but then he was gone, the hologram he had used to say goodbye flickering out of existence before we had a chance. And now I was losing him all over again, it was worse, the worst I have ever felt. My heart was being wrenched in two with invisible hands that were The Doctor's and his clones, I could feel them there, slowly tearing apart the muscle, my life's blood seeming to still. The Doctor walked past me and I can feel the tingling of the nerves in my hands when I went to reach for him but I gathered up the courage to pull back in the last moment.

I loved him. I loved him so much it hurt. My eyes felt prickly and painful with unshed tears that threatened to spill over and down my cheeks if I moved. He came around behind me and his fingers brushed mine lightly, his breath on the back of my neck moving the soft hair around my shoulders. I could feel his scorching gaze on me, smouldering brown eyes glaring at me even through my clothes. I loved him so much in that moment I knew nothing would ever compare to him, to everything he was and could ever be. He paused by me and whispered in my ear, his voice feather light and quiet so that no one around u could have heard, a moment shared between to two of us.

'I love you.'

**Pleaaaase review**

**Love Becky and Erin ^^  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Becky's chapter! Hope you enjoy. :3**

Those three words. The words that had come to tear my hearts in four. Three words, three syllables and eight letters. Such a small physical appearance, yet they held such monumental meaning to both me and her. I felt a biting chill as they left my lips. I could see my soul in those words, a bluish-white stream flowing through the cold air as they travelled to her ear. Nobody else could see it, but I knew that I was turning over my hearts to her as I said them. It was foolish of me. I shouldn't have let myself be so weak. It was just going to make it harder. But I had to let her know, I had to make sure she knew that I loved her, no matter what the end of the day would look like.

I let those words fall. It was simple science. The sound waves would travel through the air, and would hit her eardrum, and her brain would interpret the vibrations. But they would still break me down. Sound could make you feel so much. It could bring overwhelming happiness, it could bring the most terrible down of a lifetime... well these ones, they were bringing near unbearable heartbreak. I felt my eyes sting with tears as I left her side to stand with Donna in front of the TARDIS.

I knew it was time to go. I had to face the truth with all the strength I could muster. I must have known that this would happen from the very start. It always did. I always lost the ones I loved. I had just chosen to ignore it, and hoped the problem would go away. But it didn't. Standing here on this beach in Norway for the second time was enough proof of that. For the first time in my life, running away didn't help.

I dug my hands ever deeper into my pockets. Whether it was because the breeze was becoming stronger, and the chill was becoming more unbearable, or whether it was because I was stopping myself from running forward, snaking my hands around Rose's back and never letting her go, I didn't know. Shivers ran down my spine as I stared into her eyes.

'You're leaving me here?'

'I...I've got to,' I replied, barely loud enough for her to hear.

It was like Donna, Jackie and my clone were an audience to us. They just seemed like hazes at the edge of my vision, as my aged eyes stared into Rose's. She was my focus, she was the axis that my world revolved around, and I would spend as much time as I could looking at her, and feeling her presence, before I had to leave and move on.

'I spent so long looking for you...'

'I know...but he needs you now.'

'I need _you_, I came after _you_.'

She seemed to be echoing my thoughts. Every inch of my being was screaming that I needed her. But I knew that was selfish. I couldn't let her stay with me and then watch her age as I carried on the same. It wasn't fair. She needed to help the other Doctor.

'He is me. And he needs your help. He's angry and bitter, like I was when I first met you. You were my doctor, and you need to be his now. The only difference between us is that he only has one heart. He's human.'

I saw tears crowding her eyes as she looked to the wind, trying to make them retreat.

I hated having to push her away so that she could spend her life with another me. I envied him. I envied all he had. One heart, a human life, and my Rose Tyler. I hated that we shared the same memories, yet he would be able to build new ones with the one I loved. It was like we had travelled on parallel paths since the beginning, and suddenly I had broken down. I couldn't continue to gain the memories that I had dreamt of. That I dream of. I shed tears for that lost dream now. Ever since Doomsday, I had been failing. It had been a last spit of life that had brought Rose back to me. And now it had gone, and we had to part again.

'If I have to stay, let me have one thing,' she told me.

'What?'

'A proper goodbye.'

I watched her move forward slowly, step by step, closing the gap between us until she was right in front of me, staring up into my eyes. She placed her hand over my pounding, aching heart. We could see each other's tears now. We could both see how this was what neither of us wanted. Neither of us wanted to part ways, but it had to be done.

Her hand moved from my chest to my cheek, wiping away a stray tear with her thumb as our gazes refused to be broken apart. I found myself leaning down towards her, like she was my centre of gravity. I couldn't deny that force that I had always felt towards her. It was then that our lips brushed, so feather light that I hardly felt it. I shut my eyes, causing a tear to tremble down my cheek, and took a breath. I leant forward again, her warm, soft lips meshing with mine as my hands took a gentle hold on her sides.

It felt like she was stealing what remained of my heart, my strength seeping out of me. I knew that this was breaking down the walls we had built to give ourselves a chance of splitting ways, and it would have been wise to have left before, but it also felt like a necessity. Something we needed to be able to have the courage to part. I broke away, gazing tearful eyed into her large hazel pools.

'...Goodbye, Rose Tyler,' I whispered shakily, 'I lo- ... I love you.'

She smiled a sad smile, 'I love you.'

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